Maurits Hendriks
preface
“The transition from a high-performance sport career to a next career should be as smooth as possible”
Maurits Hendriks always wants to be there for the athletes. Not only during their years as active athletes, but also when they disappear from the scene and start their next career. TeamNL@work was established with this thought in mind. Maurits is happy about it and he sees room for improvement at the same time. That makes sense, that is high-performance sport. A dialogue about TeamNL@work, societal engagement and a turbulent year with gold and heated discussions.
“2021 felt like a rollercoaster. Is was a year filled with painful downs and fantastic highs. We performed well in Tokyo with 36 Olympic and 59 Paralympic medals. How could you pick your finest moment from these achievements? You simply can’t. The achievements are etched in my memory. And that doesn’t just apply to me. All the Dutch sat in front of the TV en masse or followed the athletes of TeamNL via (social) media. Fantastic things also took place in addition to the Olympics, such as the meeting between the female volleyball players of TeamNL and the high-performance dancers of Introdans. They intermingled for one week. The way of living and working is so similar that they can learn a lot from each other.
It was painful that four TeamNL athletes had to go into quarantine. Candy Jacobs, Reshmie Oogink, Finn Florijn and Jean-Julien Rojer experienced how their dream collapsed. For five years, you have been training for this moment. It had to be one of the finest moments of your high-performance career and instead, you are in complete isolation in a tiny hotel room with a small glow of daylight. Terrible. This year, COVID-19 had a huge impact. The lockdown, including the lockdown of sports clubs, the talks with athletes to receive a vaccination. I don’t really look back at this period with great joy. It was intense. Just as the debate to give priority to the TeamNL athletes to receive their vaccinations. The emotions ran high in society. I considered the meetings with the former Dutch minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Mrs. van Ark, as valuable. It shows the complexity in decision-making on topics that involved the profession of a high-performance athlete. In this respect, there will always be people who don’t agree, no matter what you decide.
“Together with the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, we feel responsible for the next step in a high-performance career”
The relationship with the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has been fruitful for years. They have played a large role in the establishment of TeamNL@work. With TeamNL@work, we make athletes aware of the fact that high-performance sports is a temporary profession and we support them in taking the next step in their career. We want this to be as smooth as possible. It often turned out to be an obstacle.
We, as TeamNL and together with the Dutch ministry, feel responsible for the next step in a high-performance career and we started a dialogue about this. TeamNL@work has been the result and is constantly making progress. It is one of the many initiatives of TeamNL, which was created in 2014 for the Sochi Games. The idea was: if you are performing so well that you represent The Netherlands in European Championships, World Championships and/ or the Olympics, then you enroll in TeamNL. You are a lifetime member of TeamNL. It simply cannot be the case that you thrill the Dutch audience during your active high-performance career and that we say afterwards ‘Well, many thanks and good luck’. So, we are also going to help you with the next step in your career, and we do so with TeamNL@work.
I am happy about this. It is a good start. We have to make progress and respond to the needs of the high-performance athletes. With support from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, TeamNL@work is free of charge to all athletes with the following elite athlete status: A-, HP- and Select, as well as to high-performance athletes who had one of these standings up till two years before. It ranges from individual tailor-made programs till group programs. What is wonderful indeed is the growing relationship between TeamNL and the business community via the TeamNL@work list of organizations. The number of jobs and internships for high-performance athletes increases. In ten years from now, we aim at TeamNL as a national movement of excellence, with our high-performance athletes as ambassadors. They are an asset for each employer since they know what to excel means and how you have to deliver an excellent performance.
What I regard as a great development, is the fact that more and more high-performance athletes are involved in society. That can be done in many ways. There are all kinds of themes that are playing out in the world right now. Your reputation as an athlete is a great tool for reaching and addressing people. At the same time, I also understand when a high-performance says ‘Well, wait a second, I already have an over-fulltime work week. If I don’t focus on my sport, then there will not be any performance whatsoever.’ Fair enough. And still, it may not harm to devote time and energy to your own engagement. We encourage athletes who are buzzing and bubbling.
With the TeamNL vision of responsible development and honorable performance, TeamNL@work contributes to the (societal) development of high-performance athletes in this respect. We are pleased to continue this in the coming years, together with the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.”
“In ten years from now, TeamNL is a national movement of excellence”
“In ten years from now, TeamNL is a national movement of excellence”
The relationship with the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has been fruitful for years. They have played a large role in the establishment of TeamNL@work. With TeamNL@work, we make athletes aware of the fact that high-performance sports is a temporary profession and we support them in taking the next step in their career. We want this to be as smooth as possible. It often turned out to be an obstacle.
We, as TeamNL and together with the Dutch ministry, feel responsible for the next step in a high-performance career and we started a dialogue about this. TeamNL@work has been the result and is constantly making progress. It is one of the many initiatives of TeamNL, which was created in 2014 for the Sochi Games. The idea was: if you are performing so well that you represent The Netherlands in European Championships, World Championships and/ or the Olympics, then you enroll in TeamNL. You are a lifetime member of TeamNL. It simply cannot be the case that you thrill the Dutch audience during your active high-performance career and that we say afterwards ‘Well, many thanks and good luck’. So, we are also going to help you with the next step in your career, and we do so with TeamNL@work.
I am happy about this. It is a good start. We have to make progress and respond to the needs of the high-performance athletes. With support from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, TeamNL@work is free of charge to all athletes with the following elite athlete status: A-, HP- and Select, as well as to high-performance athletes who had one of these standings up till two years before. It ranges from individual tailor-made programs till group programs. What is wonderful indeed is the growing relationship between TeamNL and the business community via the TeamNL@work list of organizations. The number of jobs and internships for high-performance athletes increases. In ten years from now, we aim at TeamNL as a national movement of excellence, with our high-performance athletes as ambassadors. They are an asset for each employer since they know what to excel means and how you have to deliver an excellent performance.
What I regard as a great development, is the fact that more and more high-performance athletes are involved in society. That can be done in many ways. There are all kinds of themes that are playing out in the world right now. Your reputation as an athlete is a great tool for reaching and addressing people. At the same time, I also understand when a high-performance says ‘Well, wait a second, I already have an over-fulltime work week. If I don’t focus on my sport, then there will not be any performance whatsoever.’ Fair enough. And still, it may not harm to devote time and energy to your own engagement. We encourage athletes who are buzzing and bubbling.
With the TeamNL vision of responsible development and honorable performance, TeamNL@work contributes to the (societal) development of high-performance athletes in this respect. We are pleased to continue this in the coming years, together with the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.”
“Together with the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, we feel responsible for the next step in a high-performance career”
Maurits Hendriks always wants to be there for the athletes. Not only during their years as active athletes, but also when they disappear from the scene and start their next career. TeamNL@work was established with this thought in mind. Maurits is happy about it and he sees room for improvement at the same time. That makes sense, that is high-performance sport. A dialogue about TeamNL@work, societal engagement and a turbulent year with gold and heated discussions.
“2021 felt like a rollercoaster. Is was a year filled with painful downs and fantastic highs. We performed well in Tokyo with 36 Olympic and 59 Paralympic medals. How could you pick your finest moment from these achievements? You simply can’t. The achievements are etched in my memory. And that doesn’t just apply to me. All the Dutch sat in front of the TV en masse or followed the athletes of TeamNL via (social) media. Fantastic things also took place in addition to the Olympics, such as the meeting between the female volleyball players of TeamNL and the high-performance dancers of Introdans. They intermingled for one week. The way of living and working is so similar that they can learn a lot from each other.
It was painful that four TeamNL athletes had to go into quarantine. Candy Jacobs, Reshmie Oogink, Finn Florijn and Jean-Julien Rojer experienced how their dream collapsed. For five years, you have been training for this moment. It had to be one of the finest moments of your high-performance career and instead, you are in complete isolation in a tiny hotel room with a small glow of daylight. Terrible. This year, COVID-19 had a huge impact. The lockdown, including the lockdown of sports clubs, the talks with athletes to receive a vaccination. I don’t really look back at this period with great joy. It was intense. Just as the debate to give priority to the TeamNL athletes to receive their vaccinations. The emotions ran high in society. I considered the meetings with the former Dutch minister of Health, Welfare and Sport, Mrs. van Ark, as valuable. It shows the complexity in decision-making on topics that involved the profession of a high-performance athlete. In this respect, there will always be people who don’t agree, no matter what you decide.
“The transition from a high-performance sport career to a next career should be as smooth as possible”
Maurits Hendriks
preface